Haris outlined the theme of the launch: “When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen.” A video showing this in a story followed.

Huzeifa Mustafa took us through the Galaxy Note 3 and Gear smart watch features on a large screen – from the impressive Air Command interface of the Note 3 to all kinds of fancy features like signature lock, multi-windows and ‘group play’ (enticing, isn’t it?) where many Note devices can be placed side by side and used as a single screen.

Hovering over the screen with the S Pen and pressing its button opens up 5 functions in a ready-to-please floating window:1. Scrapbooker: Circle around any content on your device or online and then save it in your scrapbook using simple strokes and clicks of the S Pen2. Action Memo: Take quick memos and then perform actions on these like call, save contacts, send message or email, search, and add tasks3. Screen Write: Make annotations on the screen4. S Finder: This is the search feature using the S Pen5. Pen Window: The coolest feature – draw a new window on the screen for opening another app

The S Pen lets you do numerous tasks using Dot and Press, Circle and Box combinations from selecting and free hand cropping to making searches and creating new windows.

Other functions and features include Samsung WatchON which lets you use your Note as a TV remote, Samsung Apps, Samsung Hub for content shopping and ChatON for messaging and communication

Accessories for the Samsung GALAXY Note 3 in the UAE will include flip wallets with auto wake-up front covers, S View covers that show you part of the screen to carry out some tasks without opening the flip cover, wireless covers, charger kits, extra battery kits, screen protectors, S Pens, game pads, various types of docks and more.

Samsung GALAXY Gear – A Good Start

Samsung GALAXY Gear smart watch is being positioned as a fashion statement. Classy to touch, the looped menus are navigated through left-right swipes and up/down sweeps. The Gear pairs via Bluetooth to the Note 3 and shows you calls, alerts and notifications, in addition to the time and weather of course, saving the effort to pull out your Note in every instance. The watch also locks your phone if you go further than a designated distance.

A truly James Bond style camera called is mounted on to the outer facing strap of the Samsung Galaxy Gear. The autofocus, ‘zero shutter lag’ and audio-visual output of this ‘Memographer’ feature are impressive considering it’s a watch taking a photo at this time. Videos are limited to 10 second clips.

The Gear comes in 6 smart colours, a 1.0 MP camera, a super Amoled screen. The primary screen shows you the time and weather. You can make and take calls on your watch using its mic and speakers once its paired with your Note 3. It also alerts you and lets you browse your incoming social media notifications through ‘Smart Relay’.

Should you forget where you left your phone, just like a car key chain, you can trigger a phone ring from your Gear watch using the ‘Find My Device’ feature.

Samsung has planned well and has 70 apps ready to go for Samsung GALAXY Gear – many come installed. The average battery life is 25 hours.

In the bloggers’ event where these gadgets were unveiled pre-launch, both the Samsung GALAXY Note 3 and the Gear were attached on theft-proof stands – which made it hard to handle the devices, and photograph them. However, I did get ample opportunity to try out all the features at ease and take pictures/short video clips. I have suggested that devices be left unattached to tables or perhaps loaned out to those wishing to review them, specially on video.

Here’s a gallery of the images from the event:

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Would you consider the features enough to buy any of these devices? What do you find exciting? What do you find predictable?

Do you think the GALAXY Gear will evolve into something cooler? Or do you see it as a trend that will pass?

Your comments and feedback on this blog post are welcome…

UAE Bloggers, YouTubers and Twitterati review the Samsung Galaxy Note3 and Gear live (wait for the tweets to load)

* User memory is less than the total memory due to storage of the operating system and software used to operate
the phones features. Actual user memory will vary depending on the mobile phone operator and may change
after software upgrades are performed.
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Farrukh Naeem

Thanks for your comments, Andrew. As a writer (and reader) the size of the Note 3 is good for reading and writing (and not to mention multi-tasking).

The watch actually looks pretty sleek and not like a contraption – I have taken videos of it and am trying to find time for edits. One would not need big wrists.

The 25-hour battery time is for the Gear, not the Note. I think you’d have to watch the watch time more than the Note time (see what I did there!). I wonder how much battery Bluetooth tethering would consume. Remains to be seen as the Gear is not launched yet in the UAE.

The AED prices have been announced by Samsung. The Galaxy Note III will come in 3G and LTE version. The 3G version is AED 2799 and the LTE version is AED 2999. Eros in Abu Dhabi had run out of Black models of Note 3 and only had white ones last week. Lulu had Black as well at 2999.

The Galaxy Gear will be AED 1199 and sold separately. Samsung might bundle it later with the Galaxy Note 3. It has still not hit the UAE market.

Overall, I think Samsung has packed a lot of power and features in the Note this time.